Oh well, I guess we should all use what we like best. I for one love the 5.8 series and think it's a great leap forward.

Well, Vector 58 is hereIt has GTKfind -- an improvement; no Turma yetIt does not like my ATI card and 1280x800 resolution ... so much for so much and 580mb

If you're having a problem with your ATI card, you might want to post about it in the Hardware forum and give more specifics about your machine. This thread is not really the place for that issue to be addressed. Thanks very much. :-)

It does not like my ATI card and 1280x800 resolution ... so much for so much and 580mb

I've had no issues on ATI cards, which model is yours? Also, I find choosing the last option "don't know" for the resolution during install works great for strange resolutions. That way it has correctly picked up 1280 x 800 on a Toshiba with Intel 900G and 1440 x 900 on an HP with Radeon X600, amongst others I've installed to.

Please open a new thread for this issue in the appropiate forum.

« Last Edit: December 20, 2006, 12:44:03 am by Joe1962 »

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O'Neill (RE the Asgard): "Usually they ask nicely before they ignore us and do what they damn well please."http://joe1962.bigbox.infoRunning: VL 7 Std 64 + self-cooked XFCE-4.10

I find choosing the last option "don't know" for the resolution during install works great for strange resolutions. That way it has correctly picked up 1280 x 800 on a Toshiba with Intel 900G and 1440 x 900 on an HP with Radeon X600, amongst others I've installed to.

"Don't know" didn't work for me on one of the RC installs I did on my system with a Radeon 9200 I run at 1152x864. It left me with a bit of an easily fixed mess. I find it easier to configure it for 1024x768 at the initial setup and then just add 1152x864 to xorg.conf myself.--GrannyGeek

Have to agree on this one. I like the soft colors as well. Easy on the eyes and not overwhelming. But then again, I didn't really hate the blue of VL. In French people say: 'Le gout et le couleur on ne discute pas!'

Not my taste either, but then wallpapers are trivial to change. I think Zenwalk does well because its got a simple focus, ie one application per task. That helps simplify things for people. One of the criticisms I hear of linux is that there is too much choice and it is confusing for newbies. So you get a distribution that works out of the box (mainly) with simple choices and you have a winning combination. Of course Vector has different strengths, this is the advantage of Linux, its flexibility.

Main page shows: Users online,latest screenshots,The links are easy to view,because the list is not long,the fonts are visible, there is navigation at top...

Wolvix:http://wolvix.org/Looks exactly as its forum,its all integrated into one. Good and easy navigation at top right corner,Main page shows:*latest comments,new forum topics,Latest packages at the repo,latest release page (link),active forum topics,login,who's online,Distrowatch latest post-- its like a god damn RSS,trying to show latest information of its user/info network and even other networks (such as distrowatch).

It has a filebrowser,which makes graphic files easy to access and list and organise...not only graphic files,any files.It has a "albums"page, which users can upload to.A documentation page with proper instructions in a wiki form (so others can update it,without having to write a whole new html and upload it)...Some of the links link directly to forum sections..Ads and paypal links are shown everything and the user doesnt notice them so much,because the overall look of the site and its layout are mostly the same whereever you go at it.

http://www.sabayonlinux.org/Has a GREAT design! Links are easy to find, main page looks impressive,its chat is easy to access without new users to have to start irc clients and set them up. I have to say that it immitates ubuntu's layout in a way.

http://linuxmint.com/Notice: Look at how important it is to show a flashy screenshot of the distro's latest version at the main page. Its what the user will first see when he or she visits it.And vector didnt even have a screenshot of its latest version for months and the newbie will have to dig it out from the links navigation somehow.

http://www.zenwalk.org/Let me be honest with you. Curent Zenwalk website puts curent VL website to shame. The colors are very well executed,the fonts in the banner arent ordinary, the banner's colors fit the color of the whole color scheme, Links are very well made and easy to navigate, we have light blue with vanilla yellow- soft colors (unlike what VL website had to offer)...Lets talk about integration:It has a rss link,loginbox,that shows how many users are online and new messages in inbox,recent news,there is alot of information shown in its right side,but unlike wolvix,its admin only posted system info...The screenshot of its brand new latest version is flashy and its at top- the first thing that you will see when you visit it- a screenshot of the desktop of its latest version..

Older vec site had a glossy kde-ish blue, which looks better than the curent Light-blue. Light blue shouldnt be everywhere on the site (a background color). It should be lighter and not so defined. It shouldnt be used as a bg color too.It looks good on the forum.If you manage to make it look the same at the website...

Thanks for posting all those links. I liked Zenwalk's the best, although I don't like their default desktop in the screenshot at all. PC Linux's was nice, too, although there's not much content on the home page.

I thought Wolvix's was unspeakably horrible. I hate light text on dark backgrounds. All those little banners and ads make it look junky and it shares one problem with VL's current home page: too much information "under the fold." Only those who are really interested will bother to scroll down and down and down. I did like the navigation links at the top of the page.

Sabayon's had the hated black background with white text, and the big icons look garish. There is way too much "stuff" on it. I was not impressed and if I were just looking at distro home pages, I'd leave this one in a couple of seconds. And their forum--horrible! How could anyone stand to read through the messages? No, no, no. That one is a loser.

As for Linuxmint, one screen shot is great. A pageful of them? Not so much. Where is the actual content? You don't want to assume people will click on a link to find out some details about a distro beyond what the desktop looks like.

Dreamlinux inflicts Flash on the visitor. I don't see anything special that Flash adds to the page and for sure, some visitors will be annoyed. You have to scroll to get to any content, and the links on the right look like ads.

Of these, I'd rank Zenwalk at the top and Sabayon at the sub-bottom.

I do agree that we should have a cleaner look, ditch the outlines on all those boxes, get rid of the wide ribbed top borders on boxes, and have a nice screen shot "above the fold." I think the old announcements of VL releases should go somewhere else than the home page.

By the way, for forum members whose native language is not English, "above the fold" and "under the fold" are newspaper terms. A large newspaper folds in half horizontally when it is displayed in a newspaper stand from which you buy it. So only the top half displays and therefore the most important stories are placed above the fold. Under the fold would be where the less important stories, or those less likely to entice someone to buy the paper, would be placed. On a Web page, "above the fold" refers to the initial screen before you do any scrolling. This is where you want the features most likely to get a visitor's attention. You can never assume a visitor will be interested enough to scroll down one screen if the first screen doesn't grab attention, and scrolling down two, three, four and more screens--well, only the most interested will do that.

I must repeat what I've said before: making critiques of the VL home page is fine, but the question is who is going to volunteer to do the work and keep on doing the work. I don't see anything wrong with this discussion. Good ideas will come from it, such as having a nice screen shot above the fold on the home page. But until there is a realistic possibility that a qualified person will volunteer to do the work for the long haul, good ideas will remain just good ideas.--GrannyGeek

I must repeat what I've said before: making critiques of the VL home page is fine, but the question is who is going to volunteer to do the work and keep on doing the work. I don't see anything wrong with this discussion. Good ideas will come from it, such as having a nice screen shot above the fold on the home page. But until there is a realistic possibility that a qualified person will volunteer to do the work for the long haul, good ideas will remain just good ideas.--GrannyGeek

I agree with your reviews of those sites, Granny. And you are rigth about the main problem is who will take the job, as Jhon pointed in another thread. Vec suggested a team in another place of this forum. I think is a good solution. To develope a site is fun, and sometimes a real challenge to a programmer, since the languages involved are complex enough to do almost anything you want. But maintaining a site is not that fun. And sometimes just boring and a heavy charge. So I think a team can do the effort better than just one person, who can easily get tired and bored. The needed tasks can be made by members of the forum in special topics, we can make text and improve them with good quality results, as the tagline thread. We can request for images and graphs and the members can post alternatives, and the community can choose for the bests, as in the newbie-friendly button thread. The site is important because is our main publicity place, with the reviews. VL has not another way of showing himself.

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"There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite."Jorge Luis Borges, Avatars of the Tortoise. --Jumalauta!!

why not start a thread and plan it out. I promise to put man power into this,if i have vec's trust or whoever gives the ftp access (to a single directory?) ...You see, this brings us to the problem of trust,thus less people can be appointed to work on it.

I know someone who is using Vector Linux and will gladly help. I've worked on a few websites with him in the past. Not sure if he will be avaiable these days ,but he is pretty good and does the job fast ,and gets over obstacles fast. I'm not putting myself for the design part,but i do volunteer.Why not have a contest- everybody to make a design of main page- a mockup or something like that..after the layout has been planned and confirmed.If its me- I will make a light blue design,that imitates this forum's look,without being too flashy or standing out. (and with the same color scheme or a close one)

Granny suggested some good ideas and insights. I do agree black is dreadfull, and while bringing alot of info,the wolvix site tends to be cluttered. There are some really good ideas there.

I would love to have a main site that shows information of whats latest at the forum:*a box that shows latest 3-4 new threads at the "new packages" section of the forum or/and the latest packages that are at the testing repo (this is possible)... That will show the users important information and the first time visitor will get the impression things are moving in the comunity fast.*a box that shows wheter the user is logged or not, how many PM messages are in his/her inbox and the number of users onli (i've seen that with the kind of forum vec has,this is absolutely possible.Pclinuxos has it)* a box that shows the last 5-6 active threads (new posts)

Move the navigation menu at top (imitating the placement and look of the forum's menu)Put these boxes on left and right side of website (or somewhere else)..

Also,it would be sweet if we had a simple gallery for the users of the forum,but limited somehow.A gallery would suggest additional need for moderation=more work for the mods. So not sure how a good idea is a gallery,but it will make a good advertisement campaign for vector. vector user boasting with their cool and flashy desktops and visitors checking the screenshots curiously. Mepis used to have a whole website dedicated to that and it turned into a huge comunity,which made mepis very popular.. another con is that gallery will also eat more bandwidth.

why not start a thread and plan it out. I promise to put man power into this,if i have vec's trust or whoever gives the ftp access (to a single directory?) ...You see, this brings us to the problem of trust,thus less people can be appointed to work on it.

I can put manpower too. I understand what you say about security, but I am not suggesting free ftp access, just one guy need it to upload files...I agree with you about the gallery, may be is enough keeping a screenshots section updated and alive.

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"There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite."Jorge Luis Borges, Avatars of the Tortoise. --Jumalauta!!